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– Second encounter with removing sutures today, Wednesday, these were a lot tighter than my first case. Patient was in tears… I was called upon to remove sutures from an arthroscopic wound. I got out all but one stitch out… had to get doctor to use loops to see where to cut for the final one though. This occasionally happens according to the nurse, but usually only on toes and fingers…

– I recieved FRESH SCRUBS today as well! 😀 There is something about a fresh new pair of scrubs…

Thursday:

Lots of conflict and bad character in the office. Computer software “Office PACS” system keeps crashing and x-rays aren’t available…. It was a real problem because everyone is on a fixed schedule, patients have been waiting a while already because of the usual delay. I finally successfully put 6 total patients in the computer, which means the doctor can come in now. I was moving pretty efficiently and I felt as if I actually did help in the clinic today.

All was going spectacular, until I was observing in on a case where the doctor had to pull out some fluid from the knee joint, an aspiration. What happened was he completely filled up one needle and then need to switch to another one. He asked me to grab a hemostat.. I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT THAT WAS…. I just froze and didn’t say anything.. thankfully I called the nurse right outside the door and she helped. I love learning lessons.

Also, I learned how to correctly set up a cortisone injection today from a guy doctor named Dan. Let me speak a little bit about Dan:

Dan is a respectable 40 year old man who starting working in the clinic over the Christmas break I was home from school this past year. I had heard a few sarcastic rumors about him and his personality, but I quickly threw those aside. I figured out Dan was a recent graduate from a Caribbean medical school that did not match to a residency program. Now I heard of this kind of problem happening before, through my vast amount of podcast listening, but never thought I’d meet a constituent. I learned about his past as a biomedical engineer who graduated from Florida State and became a chiropractor. He was a chiropractic for 10 years and decided “it was a joke”. He said the patient is not getting able to experience the full scope of clinical healing. I wish he elaborated more on this subject but he did not.

I learned most of my training through Dan this summer when I came to work at the clinic. It turns out he had matched to a family medicine residency program in South Caroline and would be leaving at the end of the week! I know how down he must have been after graduating from a Caribbean medical school and not matching. He gave invaluable advice for my medical education journey… how to think about cases, how to study, and, most importantly, how to form my own world views. Dan was the most extreme libertarian I have ever spoke to and I will not forget rigorous lunch debate on climate change, among other things.